Activists occupy London headquarters of Israel’s largest arms company
2 min read
Palestine Action has occupied Elbit System’s London HQ as part of their effort to end the supply of UK made arms, drones, munitions and military technology to Israel.
Mondoweiss By Palestine Action August 6, 2021
Editor’s Note: The press release was issued by Palestine Action on August 6, 2021. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
At 10:00 on the morning of Friday 6th August, protestors scaled the entrance of Elbit System’s London HQ, and are currently occupying the site and preventing operations. Activists are disrupting Elbit’s ability to coordinate their business of bloodshed. The facade of the building has been covered in spray-painted calls to ‘evict Elbit’, ‘Shut Elbit Down’ and ‘Free Palestine’. The site premises have been sprayed completely red to signify the bloodshed from which Elbit profits, with their UK-made drones and military tech being used to commit war crimes and repression in Palestine and across the globe.
Despite Elbit massive increasing their spending on security since the launch of Palestine Action, including the hiring of permanent 24/7 security at 77 Kingsway, Palestine Action have shut Elbit down once again. Alongside those currently occupying the site, a group of protestors have turned up to demand Elbit are evicted from their Holborn offices – with a drum regiment also showing up in solidarity.
The London HQ has been targetted several times by Palestine Action since they launched 1 year ago. In that year, Palestine Action has disrupted Elbit for 105 days of 365, across their 10 UK sites plus those of their drone parts supplier APPH, as well as costing further massive costs through in increased spending on security – which has still done nothing to stop activists from shutting them down.
The action taken today, as with all actions by Palestine Action, has been taken in order to end the supply of UK made arms, drones, munitions and military technology to Israel. This tech, manufactured at Elbit’s 10 sites across the UK, is sold to Israel for the express purpose of repressing, brutalising, and killing Palestinian people. After being “battle-tested” (in Elbit’s words) on Palestinian civilians, it is then sold on the global market to some of the world’s most repressive regimes.
